Lawn and garden tools that include a combination of a rake and broom are known in the art. Horkey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,668,850 and Lutz, U.S. Pat., No. 3,885,765, for example disclose lawn and garden tools that can be used as both a rake and a broom. While disclosing the general idea of broom and rake combinations, these prior art lawn and garden tools are unnecessarily cumbersome to use as a result of their relatively complicated designs.
Horkey discloses a rake fastened to a broom by a slidable shaft. However, in order to convert between the raking and brooming features of the tool, it is first necessary to move a latch located within the tool handle. This design, therefore, is not very efficient for a gardener requiring both features of this tool. For example, in order to switch between the raking and brooming features of this lawn and garden tool, a gardener would first have to stop raking, move the latch into the brooming position, and then begin to use the broom. In order to return to raking, the same process would have to be completed in reverse. Moreover, the broom bristles in Horkey's lawn and garden tool are not sufficiently angled away from the rake tines. This aspect of the design would require the gardener to hold the tool in such a way that it is substantially perpendicular to the ground to avoid interference with the bristles when using the rake. In short, the design of this broom and rake combination sacrifices the true functionality of both the broom and the rake.
Lutz also discloses a relatively complicated lawn and garden tool which can be converted between a wide and narrow rake. Although referred to as a broom, the narrow rake simply does not have the soft, dense bristles necessary to adequately function as a broom. The narrow rake, for example, would not be able to satisfactorily sweep fine debris such as dirt and small leaves. Furthermore, like the tool disclosed by Horkey, this design also requires the gardener to stop using the tool in order to convert between the wide and narrow settings, resulting in an inefficient loss of time.
Consequently, there exists a need for a simple, efficient, easy to use lawn and garden tool that can function both as a rake and as a broom.